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If there are any HotViews readers who are surprised at the news today that social networking sites have now become the most popular online destination in the UK, you clearly haven’t been paying attention.
In Jan 11 (Source – Hitwise) sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc collectively had 2.4b hits and accounted for 12.4% of all UK traffic. Up until then, entertainment sites like the BBC and ITV iPlayer, Sky Sports etc lead the way. People also spent more time on social networking sites than any other category. The average session time was 22 minutes. This is hot on the heels of our report earlier this month that Facebook has 30m UK users – or 75% of all UK internet users. Indeed, Facebook now gets 56% of all the UK’s social networking traffic.
The consequences of this are huge. You might not use – or like – Facebook yourself but it is certain that it is having a major effect on your business. Our MyTop concept gets closer by the day. Whether it is advertising or recruitment – or anything else connected to the enterprise – it’s all moving within the closed garden of social networking sites.
As we have warned repeatedly, we consider Google to be the company most at risk from this move. Expect desperate moves by them to enter this space. But, just like Microsoft with its Zune music player which it looks today that it is to abandon, breaking the grip of the de facto marketleader will be extremely difficult if not downright impossible.
